1. Field of the invention
This invention relates to an electrical connector assembly of the type that an operating lever is provided for the purpose of mating engagement of connectors.
2. Description of the prior art
The above-described type electrical connectors in which the principle of a lever is utilized for the mating engagement of the connectors are known in the art. An operating lever having a guide groove is rotatably mounted on either one of male and female connectors. A guide pin provided on the other connector is inserted into the guide groove. The operating lever is held in a rising state before the mating engagement of the connectors so that the guide pin is easily inserted into the guide groove when the connectors are mated with each other.
However, the operating lever is held in the rising state relative to the outer face of the connector housing in the above-described construction. Accordingly, since the operating levers sometimes become obstacles when the connectors are kept in storage facilities such as a stockroom, a storing efficiency of the storage facilities is lowered. Furthermore, the levers drop off when the operating levers come into contact with or collides with other objects during conveyance. To solve these problems, the prior art has proposed the construction that the operating lever be movable between a position at the time of the rising state and a position where the operating lever lies along the outer face of the connector housing during storage and conveyance. Even in the proposed construction, however, vibration or an external force during the conveyance causes the lever to easily move to the position of the rising state, resulting in dropout of the lever.